American Museum of Natural History's Dinosaur Galleries
Fucking awesome.
If you aren't a science nerd read this:
Lots of very neat, rare and real fossils. Nicely displayed. Well organized.
If you are a science nerd or want to learn a little something, read this:
There are two galleries and they are divided the way they should be: Ornithiscians and Saurischians (ie Bird-hipped and Lizard-hipped). This enough is plenty to get a life-science nerd / MLS like me excited. BTW, all of the carniverous dinosaurs and the Sauropods (aka long-necks) are Saurischians, while the smaller herbivores (think Triceratops, Iguandon, Stegasaurus) are Ornithiscians. Within the galleries the signage is quite good, too. Educational without being boring. It hits a lot of the high points, like dino classification, common misconceptions and facts vs. speculation.
Secondly, the specimens are awesome. Very few are casts, and those that are are marked as such. The collection on display represents a wide variety of species, including all of the usual suspects (T-Rex, Allosaurus, Pachycephalosaurus, Maiasaurus). They have one specimen that is just a pair of arms. It is the only known fossil of it's species. All they know about this entire species is based on this one pair of arms! And there are some where the soft tissues were fossilized, so that you can see skin texture and organs and stuff.
Just incredible stuff.
If you aren't a science nerd read this:
Lots of very neat, rare and real fossils. Nicely displayed. Well organized.
If you are a science nerd or want to learn a little something, read this:
There are two galleries and they are divided the way they should be: Ornithiscians and Saurischians (ie Bird-hipped and Lizard-hipped). This enough is plenty to get a life-science nerd / MLS like me excited. BTW, all of the carniverous dinosaurs and the Sauropods (aka long-necks) are Saurischians, while the smaller herbivores (think Triceratops, Iguandon, Stegasaurus) are Ornithiscians. Within the galleries the signage is quite good, too. Educational without being boring. It hits a lot of the high points, like dino classification, common misconceptions and facts vs. speculation.
Secondly, the specimens are awesome. Very few are casts, and those that are are marked as such. The collection on display represents a wide variety of species, including all of the usual suspects (T-Rex, Allosaurus, Pachycephalosaurus, Maiasaurus). They have one specimen that is just a pair of arms. It is the only known fossil of it's species. All they know about this entire species is based on this one pair of arms! And there are some where the soft tissues were fossilized, so that you can see skin texture and organs and stuff.
Just incredible stuff.